Your Morning Dump… Where the Celtics took a step backwards last night

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

“I’ve got to do a better job of preparing the team,” Rivers told reporters in Houston. “I’ve got to do a better job of playing the right guys, because everybody shouldn’t play every night, the way we’re playing. So we’ve got to figure this out. I’ve been saying that. This is the first game in a while — I think we’ve been trending well, but this was a step backward for us. Just in the way we played. I thought this was a step backwards for us.”

“I thought we started out flat [in the] beginning of the game, we started off flat in the third quarter,” Rivers said. “After the middle of the first quarter, I thought our defense from that point until halftime was fantastic. Against a high-scoring team, I think they had 42 points or something? I mean, that’s terrific defense. And then we come out with no energy, flat, to start the third quarter, and even from there, we just never really got back into it. We had some runs, but you never felt like we were going to win the game tonight. Don’t know why. Very disappointed in the loss, though.”

Doc Rivers is standing up and taking the blame, but is this really his fault? He’s got a Jekyll-and-Hyde team. While the rotations were a bit jumpy at the start of the season, I’ve come to like the way it’s shaken out.

As for the teams defensive woes, it’s the same old problem. The perimeter defense sucks:

“It’s a shame because someone’s going to look at the stat sheet and they’re going to say our bigs got beat up tonight. Our bigs got beat up because our guards and our small forwards and our power forwards couldn’t keep the ball in front of them. At some point, it’s a one-on-one defense, and that makes the team defense better, and we didn’t do a very good job of that.”

Leandro Barbosa is in danger of falling into Doc’s doghouse. He’s logged a total of 23 minutes the past six games. Defensive shortcomings aside, I’d still like to see him on the court for about 10-12 minutes.

Sherrod Blakely thinks Jason Collins might see more time, at the expense of Chris Wilcox. I think that would be a colossal mistake. Again, Wilcox value on offense offsets his defensive liability.

We’ve passed the quarter point of the season and the Celtics are 12-10. They remain consistently inconsistent. While I’m growing more frustrated and concerned with every lackluster effort, I’m not approaching the ledge just yet. But I can see it…

Wilcox’s 2 dunks a game makes up for sucking at literally everything else? Not saying Collins should play over him but Wilcoxs “offense” certainly doesn’t cancel out sucking at every other facet of the game.

Bailey

The bottom line here is the Celtics will not be a contender until they get a center who can protect and defend at the rim, if I’m the opposing team I’m not afraid of anyone on the Celtics to block my shot

Nate

Why did Doc play Pierce more than 40 minutes? If not for the blowout, he wouldve played Paul 43 minutes. Incomprehensible. It was against the freakin Rockets!!

KGino

This team needs Avery Bradley back in the worst way.. And they desperately need a rebounding big to fill out the roster. If they’re gonna wait on that (and not sign Kenyon), they better get somebody good.

RedsLoveChild

The Celtics are currently on “life support”.

What would cause Ainge to think that an emotionally troubled, washed-up, 35 year old, standing all of 6`9″ is going to solve their problems?

Larry Legend

Poor choice of words in light of what happened yesterday red. But I agree about Kenyon Martin. Not the answer. Varejao would be tho

RedsLoveChild

I respect you, Larry.

However, given the harsh realities of the world we live in, the tragic madness that occurred in Connecticut will be virtually forgotten well within a month.

As we speak, other maniacs are plotting ways to “top” what happened 24 hours ago. Yesterday`s events will be repeated 3-6 times in 2013. That`s reality.

wil333

Cs should start jeff green today and give pierce a lil break

W Baby

Its funny that no one noticed that Brandon Bass is pretty much giving us nothing!!!!!! I would start Jeff Green over Bass……….and Barbosa over Terry (only because he likes the bench)………..I really wouldnt be shocked to see a trade involving Bass, Lee, Melo, and Kris come up REAL SOON!!!!!!!